“Gorilla” by Anthony Browne (book review)

Posted By
Claire Martin
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January 29, 2014 @ 4:38 am
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Review |
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The 30th anniversary edition of Anthony Browne’s “Gorilla” features a new cover of the gentle giant.

“Gorilla,”Anthony Browne‘s lovely story about a lonely girl who longs to spend time with her father, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The re-issued book features a luminous cover of the gorilla glancing softly at happy young Hannah.

In a narrative that begs for “Cat’s In the Cradle” to be playing in the background, little Hannah tries to get some time with her perpetually busy father. (Too bad “salaryman” isn’t an English word.)

But her father is too absorbed by his work to even answer her questions, much less yield to her requests for a trip to the zoo to look at the gorillas. When he’s finally not working, he’s too tired for her.

Browne’s poignant illustrations show the girl and her father in a dimly-lit house. The father labors under a desk lamp or buries himself deep in the newspaper. Hannah tries to catch his attention until finally she gives up and watches TV in a corner.

For her birthday, she asks her father for a gorilla. Presented with a tiny toy version, she furiously hurls it in with her other toys and loses herself in sleep.

But then “something amazing happened.” The toy gorilla becomes a real gorilla, protective as the father she longs for, and ready to comply with her wishes. (There’s a psycho-sociological subtext here, but let’s leave it alone, ok?)

After a wonderful outing with the gorilla, the two return home. And when Hannah rushes to tell her father what happened, something else amazing happens.

If you like this book, be sure to look for Anthony Browne’s tender, revealing story “Voices in the Park,” a deceptively simple story about different points of view. It is about class and race, and longing and indifference, and it is just extraordinary.